Since we dont have any Android devices yet we have try out all these great application on the Android Emulator. So in this little tutorial we will see how to install the Android Emulator and how to get the .APK files to run on the emulator.

You will need to get the the Android SDK ( Software Development Kit ). I got the windows version coz I am running Vista. Unzipped the content to my C:\Android\ directory.

So the content in my C:\Android\directory was
> docs
> samples
> tools
> … etc

Now we need to right click on My Computer then select Properties. Under the Advanced System Settings, click on the Environment Variables button ( found under the Advanced Tab ), and in the popup dialog, under System Variables, scroll down to Path and double click on it. In the popup box for the Variable Value add the full path to the tools/ directory to it. In my case I had to add

;C:\Android\tools

Then execute the emulator from C:\Android\tools\emulator.exe. Give it a few seconds. The cool android interface pops up.

Now to the part of installing the .APK files. Copy the .APK files in to the C:\Android\tools\ directory. Now fire up the command Prompt. ( Start -> Run-> type in “cmd” ). Now switch to the C:\Android\tools\ directory and run the command adb install $APK where $APK is the name of the APK file.

For example: adb install AndroidGlobalTime.apk

I got the message
341 KB/s (199220 bytes in 0.569s)

Note : You need to have the Emulator running to install the applications

Restart the emulator , you should see the new application on the screen.

Note : Some older Application did not work in the new emulator